


Fork in the Road

by Ghost0



Series: The Book of Sabrina [5]
Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018), DCU (Comics)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:09:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28600476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: Sabrina finds herself meeting two of The Endless. And it is during these encounters that she comes across a stranger that sheds a little light on her situation. But it means that for now, she and Derek must part ways
Series: The Book of Sabrina [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2092500
Kudos: 1





	Fork in the Road

Sabrina looked around her. At first, she thought she was back in The Void, that somehow it had broken out of Pandora’s Box. But when she looked around her, she felt that this was a very different place. The color gray surrounded her like an endless sea. Mirrors were the only physical objects she could see. Some of them were near the ground with her, but others were high up in the air. There was a fog that covered her feet and went up to her ankles. She moved slowly, examining and studying the unknown dimension that she found herself in. She found herself in front of a mirror and looked into it. It was not her reflection she saw, but one of a small boy. He couldn’t have been older than ten at the most. He was in bed, back turned to the bedroom door. When she looked closer at him, she could see that he was awake and staring back at her. No, not her. But the mirror in his room. His eyes called out to her, expressing a look of defeat.

Her hand started to reach up and outward to the mirror. But jumped when she heard a voice from behind her. “Strange. You shouldn’t be here.” She turned around and looked down at the person who spoke. It was that woman that she saw in the mirror back in her hotel room. She was short and large, her skin gray and wrinkled. She stood before Sabrina completely nude, black hair hanging from her head as lazily as her wrinkled breasts. Her eyes were dark, but something about it was all too familiar to Sabrina. A look similar to the one she just saw in the little boy’s eyes. 

“Where…?” Sabrina started to ask, but heard something from the mirror. She turned around and watched the boy’s reaction. His eyes were closed now, pulling the cover over his head.

“Billy Stevenson.” The gray woman said. She took a few steps forward. “Small farm in the Midwest. His stepfather comes home intoxicated every night, but only truly drunk a couple nights a week. By this point he has picked up on his stepdad’s pattern. He prays that this time he just walks by his room and lets him sleep in peace. But he knows they will remain unanswered.” Sabrina turned to look at the gray woman. Her hand reached down into the fog, pulling out a rat from the ground. She held it in her hands and petted it. A dark smile formed on her face as she stared intently into the mirror, saw the door begin to slowly open. Sabrina felt her heat racing, afraid for the small boy in the mirror. 

Closing her eyes, she held up her hand and waved it in the air. “Stop! Make it stop!” The boy and his room disappeared. All that was left was a foggy mirror. She turned to look at the gray woman head on. “Do you…get pleasure from watching this?” She glared at the short woman, still petting the rat.

“There is beauty. Some portray it better than others.” She admitted. Her eyes were still trained on the mirror, as if she could still see into it.

“You just watch and do nothing!” Sabrina accused. “Making that man -!”

“He is insignificant.” She spoke plainly. “His actions aren’t important. It is the feeling of his victim that I pay attention to. The sense of dread and despair.” She pulled away from the mirror, looking out across the visible landscape. More rats came up from the fog and crawled on her body. A couple of them started to chew and bite into her skin. Either she didn’t feel it or she simply didn’t care what they were doing. 

“What are you?” Sabrina asked of her. “What gives you the right to watch and to enjoy people suffer?”

“I already said my name.” She turned around and looked at the young witch. “How did you come here? Your kind shouldn’t be able to be in this realm.”

Before Sabrina could ask her more, something rumbled throughout the space they occupied. She tried to listen to the noise, and she could sense that there was some sort of pattern to it. But it remained unidentifiable to her. But also something that she feels she should be able to recognize and hear. Yet she just couldn’t quite make it out. When it was over, she asked another question. “What was that?”

“My oldest brother.” She responded. “He requests that I send you his way.” An object glided across the ground and came at Sabrina from the side. It wasn’t a mirror, but an empty portrait. 

“I’m not going…wherever this takes me without knowing what’s going on.” Sabrina stood where she was.

The gray woman smirked. “Not knowing what’s going on seems to be why he is requesting you to begin with.” Her attention drew away from Sabrina and to a different mirror. It was clear that this woman had lost interest with the blonde haired girl. Continued to pet the rat in her hand, the other crawling over her and biting into her skin. She gave the short woman one last look of curiosity and disgust before turning around and disappearing through the empty portrait. The woman looked on, pondering if she should reach out to her sister and see if a new plague should arrive to Earth. It had been a while since there was a good one, the last one being in Europe centuries ago. A bittersweet time for her, remembering that was one of the last times she saw her brother.

******

It took a second for Sabrina to adjust herself when she saw what was waiting for her on the other side. There was lush vegetation outside past some stone pillars. She stepped forward and found herself more at ease in this place than the other one. Turning around, she studied the portrait she came through. It held a painting of the gray wrinkled woman, but wearing formal clothes from an era that has since long passed. It hung on the wall with several other portraits. There was a pale woman, smiling in hers unlike the gray woman. There was something about the way she smiled and looked at her that made Sabrina smile back. There were a few other ones, a few with men and others with women. One where she couldn’t quite tell if the person was male or female. But there was one that seemed to have a skin tone similar to that of an average Caucasian person. Her eyes lingered for a moment longer on that portrait before turning back to look outside. Her feet lead her out from the roof of the stone structure and into the garden spread out around her.

She came across a path and followed it. It took her through several different rows, letting her see a few different kinds of plants and flowers along the way. Her hand reached out towards them, but she never quite made physical contact. Part of her holding her back just enough. Just on the slight chance that touching the wrong one could bring harm. She wasn’t sure how long she ended up walking through the garden, but she found herself looking up at seven large statues. They appeared to be the same people from the portraits in the hall, but all wearing different attire. The statue for that man, the one that looked Caucasian and had a ginger beard, had his back towards her. He carried a large stick with a piece of cloth tied around the end of it. Sabrina found herself focused on that statue, the one not like the others. She became so focused on it, she found herself once again being caught by surprise by a voice.

“Sabrina Spellman.” The voice wasn’t quite as deep and booming as that from the spectre in Chicago. She turned around and looked at a cloaked, hooded figure. He held a book close to his chest, which was chained to his wrist. Looking up at him, there was a cloudy aura within his eyes. He was looking outward toward her, but not downward to meet her gaze.

“Yea, that’s me.” She held her hands in front of her. “Listen, I don’t know how I got to…where I was before coming here. But I’m sorry if I did anything – “

“Your existence has not been noted on the pages until recently.” He interrupted her. “Your ancestry, the history of your family tree, is absent from these pages. Your town has also not been mentioned. When you did appear, the words on the pages have become unreadable until they allow themselves to be read.”

She looked at the book he was holding. “You mean that one? So, that book…tells you the past and future?”

“Everything that has occurred. And what will come next.” He confirmed. “But you have no place in history within it. Until now, that is. I brought you here to answer my questions.”

“I…can try.” She responded. “Not sure how helpful I can be.”

“Tell me of your origin.”

She nodded and began. “Born in Greendale. But I guess you figured that out.” He didn’t respond. She nervously continued. “I am a witch, but I am also the daughter of Lucifer. So for a while, I was more powerful but lost it. But it feels like I am getting that back, but it feels weird.” She looked down at herself, holding out her hands and looking into her palms. Trying to sense the energy within her.

“Lucifer has no daughter.” The man said, getting her to look up at him with a confused expression. 

“But I am.” She insisted. “Just as sure as the fact that I was killed by The Void, one of the Eldritch Terrors.”

“There are no such things known by that title.” The man said. “Of this, I am certain.” 

“But I faced them.” Sabrina shook her head, eyes turned towards the ground. “My friends and I trapped all of them. I died to make sure that happened! To save them! But now they are gone and you are telling me that none of it even happened in the first -!”

“It all happened. And it all matters.” Sabrina turned to see a new figure walking down the path towards them. A man, he wore a blue coat over his suit. There was a blue hat that sat on his head and cast a shadow over his eyes, making it impossible to see what color they were or what he was feeling. The coat made it seem like he was gliding more so that walking along the dirt path. He made no sound to indicate his feet pressed down on the small stone and pebbles beneath his feet. 

The hooded figure with the book turned his head towards the direction of the man in blue. “Stranger. What business do you have here?”

“My business is with the Spellman girl.” His voice had an unnatural quality to it. Making it sound like he was talking from a fair distance away. But yet he was only a few feet away from them right now. “She has no answers and therefore is unable to give you what you seek. I have the answers to how she came here and why the book has become blurred. But I am bound by a promise to not speak of it until after her purpose has been fulfilled.”

“Hold on, shouldn’t I at least know what is going on?” Sabrina stepped towards the man in blue. “Am I dead? Is this some sort of weird purgatory?”

He leaned his head towards the young witch. “You were dead. Now you have been resurrected. But the Earth you were just on is not the same one that you died on.”

The hooded figure tapped a finger on the spine of his book. “Tell me, Stranger. Who has bound you to not speak about this girl?”

“She has a role that she must fully understand before stepping into.” He responded. “A role that one of your siblings is determined to see filled.”

The hooded figure remained silent as he pondered the words. He held out the book in front of him and opened it. His head looked down at it and his finger pressed against one of the pages. After a moment, he turned his back to them. “I can see enough to know that nothing more can come out of this conversation. Take her Stranger.” He walked away from them, traveling deeper into the garden until he was out of sight. 

Sabrina turned her head back to the man in the blue coat. “Who are you? And what is going on?”

“I am what he said, a Stranger.” He turned his body and began to move forward, Sabrina following close behind him. “Here to return you back to the Earth you left.”

“Earth. But it’s not my Earth…isn’t it?” She asked of him.

He shook his head. “There are many Earths. Many of them hold a large number of similarities. Many different versions of the same people spanning across an infinite cosmos. But there are a few individuals who stand alone among the sea of countless similar faces and places.”

“Is he one of those?” She looked back, but saw that the garden was gone. They were in a black void, surrounding them no matter where she turned her eyes. 

“He is the oldest of The Endless.” The man in blue answered her. “This is the universe he and his siblings were born in. And for as long as it has existed, they believed it to be the only one. But their influence and power has extended into the others without them fully realizing it. But right now, he is reading about our current conversation and has been made aware of their existence. Soon that knowledge will spread to the rest.”

“How can they not know if you know?” She asked.

“One of them knew before the rest. He has traveled across many different realms. He told me about some of them when he approached me and asked me to help prepare you.” He stopped walking. “You shall be sent back to this Earth, to the city of San Francisco.”

She shook her head. “No, I was in Chicago. I have to let Derek know that – “

“You will meet him again.” The Stranger told her. “But for now, you two have your own paths to walk. Two different journeys that will intersect when the time is right. I will go see him and let him know that for now you are safe. But this is where we must part ways.”

Sabrina started to object, but was hit with a flash of blinding white light. Her hands covered her eyes when it happened. She slowly brought them back down when she felt the heat of the light disappear. She found herself wearing very different clothes. More like rags, clothing that is dirty and torn. She was standing in a dirty alley. Turning around, she walked towards an opening that brought her to a sidewalk. As she stepped out, could sense that she was indeed in San Francisco by the angle that the street was at and the train that rode down the hill. Her eyes followed it as it went downwards to a more level street. She walked down the sidewalk, walking by several people who tried their best to ignore her and keep as far away as possible. She noticed, but found herself unable to really get annoyed or upset about it. Then she felt a little shame, thinking her reaction wouldn’t be much different. 

When she got to the more level street, she noticed that she had stumbled upon a shelter. She could have simply made her clothes change and to find a way back to Derek. But she had a gut feeling that she had to keep herself as is. And to go inside the shelter. After all, she did lose her family and home. Sighing, she gave in and walked through the door. She got in line for what looked like lunch, grabbing a tray. The walk was slow but she did get some bread and water and the main course at the end of the line which was chili. The woman serving that part looked at Sabrina. “Hello dear. I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

Sabrina nodded. “Yea. I guess I’m new.”

The woman, wearing a name sticker that showed she was called Alice, gave her a kind smile. “You don’t have to say more if you don’t want to. Here.” She placed the bowl on Sabrina’s plate. “If you need a place to stay tonight, you can always stay here.” Sabrina nodded gratefully, turning around and finding a spot at a mainly empty table. She sat down and slowly ate her food. Her mind was filled with questions and confusion about what she should do next. All she knows was that she had to prepare for a role of some kind. She grunted in frustration, angry that her life has become some twisted game. There is still a chance that this is all her father’s doing. He did call her false daughter, which could explain why she was told that he doesn’t have a daughter. When she thought about Lucifer, she barely noticed another volunteer walk down the aisle and wiping the table she was sitting at. She thought she saw the volunteer pass by, but when she looked up, she was there. Roughly Sabrina’s age, her hair was a dark shade of purple and wore jeans with a black shirt. The sticker on her shirt said her name was Rachel. But the odd thing about her was that in her forehead was some sort of small red diamond with a black outline.

“Your father is Lucifer?” Sabrina started to shake her head, but Rachel spoke again before Sabrina could verbally respond. “You don’t have to worry.” She couldn’t detect any kind of emotion like pity or sympathy from her tone. But Sabrina could sense that Rachel was trying to portray herself as someone safe. “My father is of a similar origin.”

“Really?” Sabrina asked. Rachel looked around, making sure no one was calling her anywhere. Then she sat down across from Sabrina as she started to introduce herself to the young witch.

******

Derek sat with his arms crossed. He looked across the large round table at the three demons holding cards. He leaned over and glared at John Constantine. “Why the fuck did you drag me along to this?”

“You need to loosen up luv.” John spoke with a cigarette in his mouth. He studied the cards in his hand. There was a pile of various colored coins and precious metals in the middle of the table. “I know that I’ve hit something of a slump for the last few hands. But I think a comeback is in order.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, Johnny boy!” One of the demons laughed as he looked over at John. All three of them had a sickly pink skin tone, pointed ears and sharp teeth that they liked to show off. The one who spoke had something of a Mohawk, but instead of hair it was sharp bone sticking out of his head. He thinks he was referred to as Ghast. “But we encourage you to keep playing. We can always use an extra soul to bargain with.”

“I don’t even understand the game.” Derek told John. “This isn’t any version of poker that I’m familiar with.”

“Used to be an underground take on it. But it really caught in the pits when Stalin started getting some people to play it with him.” This was one of the other demons. He thinks he might be called Rath. He had one eye bigger than the other and had a scar going over it. 

Derek rubbed his face, no choice but to keep watching them play their game. When he had woken up earlier this morning, he was under the impression that they were going to find a way to locate Sabrina. While John said they were going to do that, he needed Derek to come with him to do an important errand. Said it was life or death. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be watching him play cards with literal demons. His eyes were drawn to the third demon in the middle, his skin seemed to have more wrinkles and cracks in it than the others. But his eyes were just drawn back to the table itself. 

John pulled his cigarette out and crushed it in the ashtray. “All right, I think one more round should do the trick. But how about we make this a little more interesting. Unless you ladies want to cash out now before I take you for all you got. What do you say Abnegazar?”

The middle demon with the cracked skin looked up and raised an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind, Constantine?”

“Oh I’ve got two things I think you two might be interested in. I got one soul fresh for the taking right here.” He patted Derek’s shoulders. His eyes widened and he turned to John.

“What the fuck?! I am not a part of whatever shit this is!”

“Oh you are now.” He turned and gave a quick wink to Derek. Standing up, he reached into his jacket. “But that’s not the only thing I’m putting up for grabs. Also putting this little suburban paradise out there.” He placed what seemed to be a Tarot card on the table. It had an image of a house that seemed both new yet old at the same time. It had a purplish tint on it, the shadows in the image making it look like it was straight out of a gothic novel.

The demons leaned over and looked at it. “That’s the House of Whispers!” Ghast said. “How did you manage that?”

“Don’t sweat about it.” John said as he sat back down. “What do you have that will make this worth my time?” Derek glared and fumed at John for a long moment. But his curiosity about what they will put up took his attention away from him.

The demons talked among themselves, whispering frantically and eagerly. When they finally finished, the middle one snapped his fingers and a sword appeared on the table. It had a bronze handle and a long thin blade. Even though nothing was shining down on it, it gave off a gleam. “The sword of the Swiss blacksmith.” Abnegazar said. “Thought to have been lost and destroyed three hundred years ago. Satisfy you?”

John nodded. Cards were shuffled and dealt out. Derek had no idea how the rules worked. He didn’t even know John had a losing streak until he mentioned it out loud. He leaned forward and held his arms close and tightly as he waited for the outcome. A couple of them drew a few cards. They all stared at each other intensely. Then in an instant, they all slammed their cards down on the table for all of them to see. Derek had no idea which hand was good or bad. But he did figure out who was on top very quickly. 

“I warned you that I would be making a comeback.” John grinned, the other demons fuming and making fists. “You almost had me there, I admit.” Derek leaned back and let out a big sigh of relief. Constantine began to lean forward to grab the sword, but Rath grabbed his hand.

“Just a second!” He sniffed furiously. The other demons picked their heads up and started to smell the air. Slowly turning their noses to the trench coat man himself. They growled and snarled at him. “I smell a trick of the hand! A cheater!” 

Derek could tell where this was going. Cursing John under his breath, he stood up and allowed himself to transform. If a fight was going to break out he might as well take control as early as possible. His now blue hand reached up and grabbed onto Rath’s arm, pulling him and throwing him across the room. The other two demons snarled and flipped the table over. John stood back, holding fire in his hands and began to throw it at them. One hit them, but it didn’t seem to leave any serious injury. The other jumped at Derek, scratching and trying to bite into his blue skin. A roar came from Derek’s throat, rattling the room they were in. One of his hands came up and penetrated the demon’s body, blood dumping out of it. He turned his body and tossed him against Rath, who was starting to get up until he was hit with his brother. Derek was tackled from behind by the other demon. They rolled towards the other two, brawling as they tried to gain an advantage over the other. Derek could hear John chanting something, the air around them starting to change and grow hotter. He delivered a powerful punch into the demon’s face. His grip on Derek was broken, allowing him to get back away from the three. With a few more words being shouted by Constantine, the demons were swallowed in a circle of fire. The fire died quickly to show that all of them had vanished. John clapped his hands together, Derek slowly turning around to face him while still in his blue demon form. “Right then. Good team effort there.” 

Derek punched John, breaking his nose and making him fall onto the ground. “You cheated.” He never spoke while in this form before. His voice was essentially the same. But it seemed to have a growl to it. He turned back human as he saw John struggle to get back up and holding his bleeding nose.

“Of course I did! Every demon cheats! And the only way to beat one is to make sure your better at it than them.” John grunted as he tried to wipe the nose off his chin. “Besides, I said I would help and I needed to make sure I did.”

“While risking sending me to Hell.” He pointed out. Walking over, he picked up the sword. “How the fuck does this help?”

“The sword of the Swiss blacksmith was made when the armor of an angel and a demon were melted into the same blade.” John said. All you have to do is slice the air and it will open a portal to wherever you want to go. You just need to think of the place you want to go to. Or, theoretically, the person you are trying to reach. Your bloody welcome. Now, I have to go fix this little mess you made.” He turned and left Derek in the abandoned factory, pushing open the door barely clinging on its hinges and disappearing into the daylight. 

Derek held the sword in his hand, looking at the blade. He looked at his reflection in metal. That was when he noticed that someone else was behind him. But it was someone he had already met before. Back in Seattle, right before his first kill. Turning around, he grabbed the man by the collar of his blue coat and held the blade to his throat. Even this close up, the shadow from his blue hat prevented him from actually seeing his eyes. “You…whatever your name is!”  
“I am as you remember me. A phantom stranger.” The figure told Derek.

“You put this demon inside me! Now you are going to take it out, otherwise you are going to end up bleeding on the ground.”

“If I am without a head, I will be unable to inform you on the location of Sabrina Spellman.” Derek glared at the figure for a moment longer. But he pushed him back and lowered the sword. “She is currently in San Francisco, under the guise of a young homeless teenager. You are not to go to her just yet.”

“Why not?” Derek demanded.

“Sabrina needs to prepare for what she is about to take on. Which will require time and focus that can’t be obtained with you taking her across the land and getting involved with the likes of John Constantine.”

He held his sword out towards the door in protest. “The only reason I was with him was because he told me he could help me find her. And I guess he technically fulfilled that promise.”

“Yes, by giving you the sword of the Swiss blacksmith.” The stranger looked at Derek’s weapon. “It has the means to take you to her. But you must go on your journey. I did not put something inside you, Derek Tynion. All I did was make you realize what you are capable of. Both the good and the bad. But it is up to you in regards to how you use your power.”

Derek continued to glare at the stranger. But it was with far less intensity and rage. He lowered his sword and looked around the room. He pondered and debated within his head. Eventually, he turned back to the person who allowed him the ability to transform. “If I’m not supposed to be with Sabrina right now, what am I supposed to do?”

“There is a graveyard within the Louisiana Bayou. Go there and you will sense that there is a dark aura around a crypt in the center of the yard. You can use your sword as a kay to unlock and move the door. It will take you Hell itself. You will descend and challenge the rule of one of the three kings. Succeed and rule his part of the infernal realm.”

“Why the ever-loving fuck -?”

“You and Sabrina will be joined once again. But you must go this way in order to be prepared.” The stranger nodded and adjusted his hat. He vanished into the shadows. Derek yelled out in frustration, angry at being manipulated by both Constantine and this phantom stranger. He begrudgingly accepted his suffering, focusing on the promise that he will find his newfound friend soon. His feet helped him leave the abandoned factory. Once inside his car, he forced himself to leave the city and head south.


End file.
